Hot Rod Homecoming: Recap

65th anniversary car show is a huge hit in Pomona, CA

HOT ROD magazine celebrated its 65th anniversary this year, and with it the biggest car reunion in history presented by Chevrolet Performance, co-sponsored by Edelbrock. The car show took place in Pomona, CA, on March 23rd and 24th.

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The focus was a collection of more than 300 cars, 72 of which were on the cover of HOT ROD magazine at one time. This was the largest-ever gathering of magazine cover cars that included hot rods from issues as old as 1948 and as new as the most recent edition. All ticket holders also got into the NHRA museum on site for free.

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Among the famous cars in attendance were Gary Schroeder's '27 T from HOT ROD's August '58 cover and Tony Baron's '27 T from the December '58 cover. Each '27 roadster was on HOT ROD's cover in '58, yet they look completely different. These two vehicles are what make the hot rodding hobby what it is. Created around personalizing your car, the hobby embraces making your car different from your buddy's, even when you're starting with the same car.

The show was separated into four buildings; each building representing a piece of hot rodding history. Building 4, the main and largest building has all of the early cars and famous figures that created hot rodding along with a couple important cars in hot rodding timeline including the HOT ROD Levi van.
Building 6 moved into the later years of budget drag racers and then into the Pro street era. Building 5 featured pro builders like Steve Strope and Bryan Fuller and the last building, building 8, featured an exhibit from Petersen Museum and all of the HOT ROD project cars.
Land speed record holders were also in attendance; tons of dragsters and engines popping out of hoods could be seen throughout the buildings. Each car's cover photo was placed in front of the appropriate vehicles on a stand.

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A majority of the cars were unchanged and looked better than the grainy covers, but some were just a hint of what they once were. Owners of the cars were nearby and loved to talk about the famous hot rods.

HOT ROD Homecoming gallery:

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Hot Rod Homecoming: Recap

This '50 Buick is the second of two feature cars that made builder Troy Trepanier famous. Nicknamed "Bumongous" by Gray Baskerville, this car was eventually sold to Orion Car Audio. Stuffed with 3,000-watts of audio gear, it toured the country demonstrating the best way to break a windshield with sound pressure. It was broken into twice, caught fire once, stuck in a flood, sold to Johnny Lightning, which made die-cast versions of the car, and then it ended up at a Barrett-Jackson auction in 2010 where Glen Allen bought it.

Even though they're not parked in the same building at the HOT ROD Homecoming, Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision and the builder of the T5-R Martini Mustang, couldn't help but move his car for this rare photo op. On the left is the February 1967 cover car, a Mustang that used a version of the rare DOHC Ford "Indy" V8 to set a number of FIA records. The Martini Mustang on the right uses a similar engine, albeit with a different exhaust port configuration. HOT ROD just finished up a feature on the Martini Mustang, it's due out in the June 2013 issue.

HOT ROD has featured a lot of red, first-gen Camaros, but this one is special. This was the first red, first-gen Camaro ever featured in HOT ROD. After a brief stint at Motor Trend where the stock pony car was tested, the 1967 SS 350 4-speed car was handed over to HOT ROD for testing with aftermarket parts. Over the course of its tenure at the magazine, the car was used to develop a number of products, including Hedman Hedders, Hurst Line-Loc, Lakewood traction bars, and the Edelbrock C4B intake manifold. Vic Edelbrock has owned the Camaro since 1997, when he purchased it from former HOT ROD editor Jim MacFarland. It has since been restored and now runs a 460hp Edelbrock crate 383 that's linked to the original Muncie M21 4-speed.

Keith Charvonia's '51 Keiser used to be a four-door, was six-inches taller, and had fugly bumpers; all of which was remedied before Gene Winfield sprayed this orb-scorching paintjob.

John Lipori of Marina, California, is the owner of a Skylark funny car built by his father, Jerry Lipori, in Brooklyn back in 1967. Papa Lipori's partner Steve owned a Buick dealership, and, this being the rise of funny car madness, the guys thought a Buick flopper would be just the ticket to boost sales. The mold was made of a complete Skylark from the dealer show floor; you can even see the part numbers in the turn signal lights. Normally, a body would be smoothed and filled before a mold is made, so the little details like the imprint of the front of the car inside the fiberglass body make this very unique.

Don Waldron and his friend and employee, Marty, polished the body and quickly threw together a rolling chassis and 409 from parts of another Willys. The car was a hit. Friday March 24th, the guys bench raced a plan to rebuild the car together and race it at the March Meet in 2014. The vibe about the project was good and the creative juices were flowin'. Fellow gasser fiend, Rick Panneton, owner of the Yesterday's Child Tri-Five, even offered up a pair of period-correct carbs he had in his garage. On Saturday, a business card was placed on the car with information leading to the whereabouts of the original front sheet metal for the Silly Willy, which is actually the old Culver Sandblasting Co. Willys, a popular '60s match race car that ran at Lions and Riverside. The parts supposedly even have the old orange paint still intact.

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